


So. What do you think? You've said nothing all session ...

by DivineVarod



Category: Red Dwarf
Genre: Bullying, Childhood, Childhood Memories, Christmas, Gen, Give & Take, Memories, Therapy, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-22
Updated: 2016-10-22
Packaged: 2018-08-23 19:18:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8339566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DivineVarod/pseuds/DivineVarod
Summary: I'd quite like to see you with regard to your psychiatric skills.I've got some issues with my father who I discovered wasn't my father. Also, I've got some issues with my mother who very sadly is my mother. Also, I've got brothers. I should probably sit down.---Spoilers for: Give & Take---





	

**Six years old -**  
  
Their gardener had a cute little bunny in a cage next to his cottage. The young Arnold J. Rimmer always sat and cuddled with the bunny whenever he had the chance. It was usually the only warmth he received for weeks on end. Rimmer adored the rabbit and would always feed it lettuce which he picked from the vegetable patch close to the gardeners house.  
One day, as he sat cuddling his furry friend his father and brothers walked by and glared at him and the rabbit.  
“Put that thing down Bonehead, you little wuss!” Frank jeered.  
Young Rimmer froze, his arms clutching tightly around his only source of comfort. His father stormed towards him and picked him up forcefully by his collar.  
“Here I am trying to make a man out of you and what happens?" His father growled as he shook him harshly. "I find you cuddling bunnies like a four year old girl.” Just as suddenly he let him go and threw him to the ground. “Put the thing away Arnold and come home to take your punishment.”  
Tears streaming from his eyes young Arnold was locked in his room that night: without water and food and battered and bruised from his father's corporal punishment. Nursing his wounds he promised himself he would run away the next morning to a new life, together with his rabbit.   
  
_But when I woke up in the morning she was gone. And so was the lettuce …_

* * *

**Seven years old -**  
  
At boarding school Rimmer was as much an outsider as he was at home. Quiet and a bit odd he was an easy target and naturally he was bullied by the children as well as the teachers (including his father). Rimmer was a scared and lonely boy whose only company was his teddy bear. The bear was a present from his gardener, who had told him the cuddly soft toy would watch over him. Each night Rimmer hugged it tightly hoping to feel safe. One horrible night the other boys pulled off his blankets as he slept to prank him and spotted the bear in his arms. He woke up to find his entire dorm surrounding his bed; laughing at him, mocking him for sleeping with a cuddly toy. Humiliated, scared and upset Rimmer tried to crawl away to the furthest corner of his bed. Then someone snatched his bear away from him and ran to the toilet, the other boys hot on his heels.  
A few hours later Rimmer found his little friend face down in the toilet, dirty, wet and smelling of urine.  
He swears he can still smell it even now, no matter how many times he has washed it over the years.  
The boy who took it … was his brother.  
  
_Why would anyone do that to my teddy bear?_

* * *

**Eight years old -**  
  
Returning home from boarding-school unexpectedly one day he found his mother in bed with his uncle. The worst thing, he still feels, was that he wasn't even surprised or shocked. What did hurt was that she didn't even notice that the person who entered the room was him. She thought he was a servant and just barked orders at him … Orders to bring her sexually stimulating aids that he was far too young to hear or know about.  
  
_And she was shouting at me, 'More talcum powder! More talcum powder!'_  
_But I didn't have any talcum powder!_

* * *

**Five years old -**  
  
Rimmer never celebrated Christmas. A waste of time, his parents said. For him, not for his brothers, of course The same for birthdays, they were ignored – they weren't even mentioned any-more after he turned four. A waste of time and he should be old enough to realise that. Every year he watched the children at school as they talked excitedly about what they would do during the holidays. He saw the tree at home that he wasn't allowed near. All he wanted was to sit beneath a tree with his family but no-one wanted him there: he was a failure and his presence would spoil the atmos.  
Once … he must have been in Year One at his school on IO,  the class was told that they would all draw Christmas trees. Little Arnold was so happy! He would stick the drawing on the wall of his room and sit underneath it. He would finally have his own Christmas! The child swiftly took his green crayon and got to work - he loved drawing so much!  
But then the teacher suddenly got up and took away his drawing tools and then told him: his father had told the school that he was to have extra maths instead of drawing trees and joining the class' Christmas celebrations. He took away his green crayon and gave it to the girl next to him. His young heart broke: there he was studying again while everyone else was drawing and having fun.  
  
_Why did she get the green crayon?  
_

* * *

**_So, what do you think? You've said nothing all session ..._ **


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